Whumptober 2019 - 27 - Ransom
by DinerGuy
Summary: 2018 reboot. As if being tied up, blindfolded, and stuffed into the trunk of a car wasn't enough, on top of the knock to the head he'd taken trying to overpower their captors, now Higgins wanted to blame him?


_A/N: __Standard disclaimers apply._

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"How exactly is this my fault?" Magnum asked indignantly. As if being tied up, blindfolded, and stuffed into the trunk of a car wasn't enough, on top of the knock to the head he'd taken trying to overpower their captors, now Higgins wanted to blame him?

Beside him, he could feel her shifting. "Because, Magnum, it was _your _idea to pose as a wealthy couple from the mainland in the first place. We couldn't have just been some local couple looking for a romantic weekend or, I don't know, health and safety inspectors checking out the hotel's kitchen?" She huffed in frustration.

Okay, that was fair enough, he supposed. But still… "How was I supposed to know these goons would overhear and snatch us for ransom?" It was usually easy to fall into friendly arguments with Higgy anyway, but, to be honest, Magnum was struggling to keep himself awake, and the bantering was helping to stave off the unconsciousness he could feel threatening him. Even though he couldn't see a thing, he could tell by the way his head was spinning and his stomach was rebelling that he was dangerously close to passing out.

He really hated that he had so much experience with the feeling that he could immediately identify it.

"You're a private investigator; _you _should think through all of the possibilities of a plan before putting it into motion. _Including _the possibility of flaunting our status resulting in our getting kidnapped!"

Magnum sighed, stifling a groan as the car went over a dip in the road. There wasn't a lot of room in the trunk between him and Higgins, and he felt himself bumping up against her when they were jostled around.

"Are you okay?" Her question in the next moment told him he hadn't complained as quietly as he'd thought.

He clenched his jaw against the nausea now threatening. "I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine."

Well that was just offensive. Couldn't she ever just take his word for something? "Do you have to argue with everything I say?"

"Do you have to lie about your condition while we're both tied up in the boot of a moving vehicle when it's in both of our best interests for me to know if I can expect your backup if I decide to rush our captors?"

If he thought about it for long enough, he could probably come up with a retort, but his mind didn't want to cooperate. So he just settled for an indignant huff and turned his attention to the bonds around his wrists to see if he could work them free.

Unfortunately, the goons who had grabbed them had used duct tape, and he was pretty sure he wasn't going to be getting it off of his wrists without the assistance of something sharp.

The hands on his shoulder in the next second made him jump.

"Higgins?"

"Yeah, it's me. Sorry. I can't see much in here."

Her hands bumped along his cheek, then he felt the blindfold falling off. He blinked, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the trunk as Higgins shifted beside him. Her hands were on his shoulder again, then he felt them moving down his arms, as if trying to locate the tape wrapped around his wrists. "How did you get free?" he wanted to know.

She chuckled. "It would seem the idiots who grabbed us didn't expect the heiress to a cattle empire to be carrying a knife."

There was definitely a hint of sarcasm to her tone, but Magnum wasn't sure he could sustain another argument, not with the way his head was still pounding.

He felt something sawing at the layers of tape, which gave with a muffled _pop_ a few moments later. His right arm fell over in front of him, and he painfully shifted to pull his left arm out from underneath him, then winced as he pulled the rest of the tape from his wrists and balled it up to drop somewhere on the floor beside him.

"There." Higgins sounded satisfied. "Now we just need to get out."

"Right."

The car went over another bump, then took a turn, and he groaned as he slid just far enough for his head to hit the side of the trunk.

"You are _not _okay."

He appreciated her stating the obvious. Magnum closed his eyes and tried taking deep breaths through his nose. He definitely had a concussion, and being trapped in a tiny space where it was constantly being aggravated didn't help at all.

He could feel Higgy moving beside him, and he opened his eyes and carefully turned his head to try to see what she was doing. She seemed to be on the side closest to the trunk's lid, and he could just make out her turning to face the back of the car.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to kick out the taillight," she replied matter-of-factly before pulling her leg up toward her chest.

"How… is that going to help us?" he asked. "They took our phones."

"Perhaps there will be other cars nearby who we can signal for help," Higgy replied simply. "Or, if nothing else, I can figure out where we are for whenever we get free."

More nausea washed over him then, and he closed his eyes against it in hopes that he _wouldn't_ throw up in the next moment. If being trapped in a trunk was bad, being trapped in a trunk with vomit soaking into the carpeting was worse. Not to mention the fact that Higgins might actually kill him if he threw up on her.

He felt himself starting to drift off as the sounds of the road outside and the rumbling of the engine slowly faded away. Even though he told himself it was a really bad idea to fall asleep with a concussion, a little voice in the back of his mind brought up that was an old wives' tale and that he'd be fine. And he didn't have the energy to argue with it, so he let it happen.

The jolting of the vehicle that sent him sliding into Higgins woke him. He blinked, trying to focus in the dim light of the trunk that was now just a little brighter with the absence of one of the taillights. The car's forward momentum halted, and Magnum heard the engine shut off.

Higgy tensed beside him, and, when the trunk opened in the next moment, she launched herself at the man who had opened the door.

Magnum growled and forced himself up. He couldn't leave Higgins to try to fight two guys at once, as much as his head hurt at the moment.

When he cleared the trunk, nearly falling on his face on the pavement before recovering, he saw Higgy flipping one of the men who had grabbed them over onto his back. Clearly, the goons had not been expecting any resistance from two captives who had been tied up when they were dumped in the trunk of the car.

The second kidnapper was just rushing around from the front of the car, and Magnum threw himself at the guy with a yell. It was a good thing he was close, because Magnum honestly wasn't sure if he'd have been able to make it otherwise.

They went down in a tangle of arms and legs, and Magnum managed to get a solid lick in on his opponent's jaw. But then the goon threw a punch of his own that landed on the side of Magnum's face and caused the pain in his head to flare up.

Sparks of white danced across his vision, and then a blow to his abdomen had him gasping for breath.

Magnum shook his head to clear it and grabbed onto the other man as the goon tried to get up from the concrete. The guy went down again, and Magnum scrambled to avoid his fists and get the upper hand. He was operating almost solely on instinct now, and, somehow—although he actually wasn't sure how—able to get an arm around the man's neck in a chokehold.

The kidnapper tried to buck him off, but Magnum just squeezed tighter, knowing he probably couldn't go after the guy again if his newest attempt failed.

Thankfully, the man collapsed in the next second, and Magnum allowed himself a moment to lie back and try to catch his breath. His chest was heaving, and his head was spinning… He knew he should help Higgy, but he just needed a minute…

The sounds of the scuffle between Higgy and the kidnapper she was fighting ceased, and Magnum sat up at the sudden silence. Or, rather, he tried to sit up. Instead, when his vision cleared, he found himself flat on his back again, staring up at the sky.

"Magnum?" Higgins appeared next to him, and she looked relieved when she saw his eyes were open. "Hey, you're okay. Just lie still."

He wasn't going to argue with that order.

She knelt beside him and let out a breath. "I called for help," she informed him. "An ambulance should be here in a minute."

Well, that was good. As much as he hated hospitals, he really didn't object to the idea of pain meds at the moment. His head was still _pounding._

In the meantime… he wondered if he could play the injured-friend card to convince Rick and T.C. to finish up the surveillance of the hotel.

* * *

_Fin._


End file.
